3D
Such A Great Height
by Kristina Dniprenko · submitted Jul 28, 2010 · 2010 contest
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Description
Two things were clear when starting the cake making process: 1)The design had to be "Such A Great Height", and 2) it had to be towering.
I don't normally used boxed cake mix, but like I said, I wanted this cake to have great height! In my mind, it was four tiers or nothing. I didn't have all the necessary cake pans for the sizes I wanted and needed to perform some cake related surgery for the smaller cakes, but all told, I made 19 layers of moist yellow cake.
I then jazzed up some vanilla Bulk Barn frosting by adding melted dark chocolate and proceeded to stack and frost the layers to make my four tiers.
I make my fondant from scratch and the first batch didn't turn out, so I had to start over. After covering the cakes, I decided the proportions of the top tier were way off so I cut it in half, cut out a tiny little cake nub and covered that with green fondant, resulting in the button-like top tier.
Once the cakes were stacked, I was left with the tricky task of the giraffes. I initially planned on having them wrap around the cake, but the cut out of the giraffes looked so good standing tall and free that I changed my mind.
I printed the picture of the giraffes, traced it onto waxed paper then used a pin to prick the design on to a sheet of rolled out fondant. I then used an exacto knife to cut out the design and placed the sheet of giraffes on large coffee can covered in a dish cloth so that it would dry with the same curve as the cake.
In the meantime, I cut out little leaves and 'glued' them to the cake with a mixture of water and dissolved fondant. Two days later I attached the giraffes to the cake using more frosting. I added the eyes and voila!
It took six days total to complete the cake, though with the exception of the day I baked the cakes, most days consisted of only a few hours work.
I don't normally used boxed cake mix, but like I said, I wanted this cake to have great height! In my mind, it was four tiers or nothing. I didn't have all the necessary cake pans for the sizes I wanted and needed to perform some cake related surgery for the smaller cakes, but all told, I made 19 layers of moist yellow cake.
I then jazzed up some vanilla Bulk Barn frosting by adding melted dark chocolate and proceeded to stack and frost the layers to make my four tiers.
I make my fondant from scratch and the first batch didn't turn out, so I had to start over. After covering the cakes, I decided the proportions of the top tier were way off so I cut it in half, cut out a tiny little cake nub and covered that with green fondant, resulting in the button-like top tier.
Once the cakes were stacked, I was left with the tricky task of the giraffes. I initially planned on having them wrap around the cake, but the cut out of the giraffes looked so good standing tall and free that I changed my mind.
I printed the picture of the giraffes, traced it onto waxed paper then used a pin to prick the design on to a sheet of rolled out fondant. I then used an exacto knife to cut out the design and placed the sheet of giraffes on large coffee can covered in a dish cloth so that it would dry with the same curve as the cake.
In the meantime, I cut out little leaves and 'glued' them to the cake with a mixture of water and dissolved fondant. Two days later I attached the giraffes to the cake using more frosting. I added the eyes and voila!
It took six days total to complete the cake, though with the exception of the day I baked the cakes, most days consisted of only a few hours work.